A 36% decline recorded in CIT heists – Police minister

There has been a 36 percent drop in the number of cash-in-transit heists, according to police minister Bheki Cele, Rekord East reports.

A total of 118 cash-in-transit robberies have been recorded across the nine provinces from 1 April 2018 to 4 November 2018 compared to the same period last year, when 184 cases were recorded.

Cele was speaking at the government communication and information system offices in Hatfield on the progress made against cash-in-transit robberies.

He said since the announcement of so-called “national stabilisation interventions” to curb serious crimes, particularly CIT robberies, “we have seen less and less of them taking place, but we are not out of the woods yet”.

He announced that the SAPS had apprehended 230 armed robbery suspects in the past five months.“Arrests of this nature also serve as a warning to all other people who commit crimes and seek refuge in our country; South Africa is not a safe haven for criminals.”

He said 237 arrests were made while 92 vehicles were recovered and 78 firearms and 1 402 rounds of ammunition recovered during police operations.

A “substantial” amount of money was also recovered, he said.

The announcement follows a spike in such crimes during which armoured vehicles were attacked by heavily armed robbers who used explosives in some instances. Most of the robberies were in Gauteng, North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

Despite the progress, Cele said the fight was far from over.